Hercules/Xena (Spoilers)

I take it you don't watch any HBO, Showtime, or Starz?
I actually watched Hercules first season for the first time last year, and I really enjoyed it. It's just a goofy, fun show that you really can't even try take seriously.

As for you question Kirk55555, we do get to meet the Gods in person later. I haven't actually watched past season one yet, but I've read a little bit about the show on Wikipedia and it sounds like they do start popping up fairly often as the show goes on. When do we start meeting more of them?

I've barely seen anything from those networks. There isn't really any shows on those networks that I'd want to see, and nudity is not something I'll tolerate in TV shows in general. So, even if they had a show I wanted to see, I probably wouldn't watch it. I've only seen a few shows from channels like that. My favorite is Penn & Teller's Bulls*it, which was great, but obviously a bit different than the average show. I think it was on showtime, although I obviously didn't watch the show on TV. I've also seen Tales from the Crypt, and I think Stargate SG-1 started on one of those types of channels (as you can see from the pointless nudity in its pilot), and there are things like George carlin's HBO specials, but generally speaking I have no reason to watch what I think of as the paid borderline porn stations.

I actually watched Hercules first season for the first time last year, and I really enjoyed it. It's just a goofy, fun show that you really can't even try take seriously.

As for you question Kirk55555, we do get to meet the Gods in person later. I haven't actually watched past season one yet, but I've read a little bit about the show on Wikipedia and it sounds like they do start popping up fairly often as the show goes on. When do we start meeting more of them?

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Yeah, its a fun show so far. It can be dark though, which is interesting, although I like the light hearted stuff just as well. I don't know when other gods show up in human form obviously, although I'm pretty sure I saw a pic of Aphrodite in human form from the show while looking at Hercules stuff, so I'd imagine that season 2 probably shows someone.

I've gotten through two more episodes, and they were enjoyable.

As Darkness Falls was an interesting episode. The show tries to use centaurs again, with mixed results. When they're trying to show them full body with special effects, they're generally horrible (with one specific show showing Lyla towering over them). But up close, they were decently convincing. The toga merchant was back as the sidekick this episode, and he was pretty good. We get to see one of the Amazons from Hercules and the Amazon Women again, although she seems to have changed her name, backstory and personality I've heard that after this episode she changes her name again, and becomes a warrior princess It's kind of funny seeing Lawless playing a second non-Xena role, when her Xena debut is only a few episodes away. She is also much shorter compared to Sorbo than I expected. Overall, I liked this episode.

Pride Comes Before a Brawl was a very good episode. We get to see Iolaus again (YES!) and he is the focus of the episode. He does a good job carrying most of the story, although this episode seems to confirm that they're just ignoring the fact that Iolaus got married the first time we ever saw him. Hercules and the Amazon Women definitely took place before the show (since dialog with hercules about his life confirmed that he hadn't been married yet), but Iolaus apparently just forgot he has a wife while flirting, and then kissing the woman he saves this episode. I'd be fine if there was just a line of dialog like "I'm sorry to hear your wife died, Iolaus" "Thanks, hercules". Not addressing it at all is just kind of weird, although it didn't effect how I feel about the episode. It was very enjoyable, and I hope we see more of Iolaus, he's easily my favorite sidekick for Hercules.

It wasn't a serious comment. HBO and similar stations have a lot of nudity and sex scenes in their shows, so I was just kidding. I wasn't actually trying to say that it was actually porn

Also, I watched another episode.

The March of Freedom was ok, but it could have been better. Hercules buys a female slave (so that he can release her) played by Lucy Liu. He ends up helping her and her husband while defeating some slavers. There was some interesting martial arts style fighting with the husband of Liu's character, and some good scenes, although the story overall wasn't too special.

I've barely seen anything from those networks. There isn't really any shows on those networks that I'd want to see, and nudity is not something I'll tolerate in TV shows in general. So, even if they had a show I wanted to see, I probably wouldn't watch it. I've only seen a few shows from channels like that. My favorite is Penn & Teller's Bulls*it, which was great, but obviously a bit different than the average show. I think it was on showtime, although I obviously didn't watch the show on TV. I've also seen Tales from the Crypt, and I think Stargate SG-1 started on one of those types of channels (as you can see from the pointless nudity in its pilot), and there are things like George carlin's HBO specials, but generally speaking I have no reason to watch what I think of as the paid borderline porn stations.

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There's been some pretty great shows on those networks, but I can understand if you can't handle the nudity and stuff.

Eh, its mostly not my kind of stuff. I know Game of Thrones is big, but I didn't like the first book when I tried to read it, I'm not into stories that are overloaded with evil people and situations and don't balance it out with something likeable. I also mostly like Sci Fi and fantasy stuff, which (outside of GoT) those channels don't really do, and the non genre stuff I like is also not really something one of those channels would do. A quick look on wikipedia (for the list of TV shows networks like HBO and showtime have made/currently make) confirms those networks wouldn't be for me even if I didn't object to the rampant nudity in their television shows. I'm not saying they're bad, they just aren't the kind of channels that produce stuff I'd like to see.

The Warrior Princess was pretty good, but honestly a bit disappointing. I knew Xena started out as a bad guy, but I was hoping for a more barbarian like villain, not stupid but more violent. Instead, we got some tedious scenes of her seducing Iolaus to slow down parts of the episode, along with making Iolaus seem pretty stupid, and a horrible friend to Hercules (seriously, one week with her and he just disregards his friendship/trust of Hercules entirely?).

When they actually let Xena be a warrior (maybe 2 scenes total, for about five minutes all together) she had some exciting fight scenes, so she can definitely handle some fighting. It was really bizarre because I never imagined Xena, Warrior Princess, to solve her situations by batting her eyes, even when she was evil. I was expecting more butt kicking, and this episode seemed to hate giving any time for her to do that. I didn't really expect her and Hercules to go at it, but she really didn't do much to justify being called a Warrior princess this episode. I'm sure that will change, but while I liked her debut, it was kind of disappointing. Hopefully she'll get more character scenes (and more fighting scenes) when she shows up later for the last two episodes of the season.

I think it's safe to say Hercules and Xena are the PG13 version of Game of Thrones. Both enjoyable, one with less nudity and gore.

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Well, Hercules is likeable (and I'm betting Xena is too once she becomes a good guy), Hercules has some good sidekicks, and no one is having weird sex or killing children, so I'd say its nothing like GoT

Honestly, though, they really have no similarities outside of both being in the Fantasy genre. The concepts are different, the characters nothing alike, and the tones seem to be complete opposites. It's kind of like saying that The Hobbit is just a more action packed version of The Princess Bride. Its the same genre (kind of, although TPB has more comedy), but extremely different worlds and stories.

Gladiator was a decent episode. Hercules and Iolaus get captured to help save a woman's husband, who is the top gladiator of the prisoners. The episode cheats a bit by having some gladiator fights just narrated to us by a watcher, but there was some decent fighting anyway. This episode wasn't surprising or amazing, but it was a decent enough adventure. Gladius (the main Gladiator) seemed familiar, and looking him up on wikipedia he's had bit parts on shows I've seen like Angel and Smallville, but I most recognize him as Worf's brother Kurn in TNG/DS9 and as old Jake Sisko in The Visitor.

The Vanishing Dead was a entertaining episode. Two siblings are at war over their kingdom, a war started by Ares so that his dog can feed on dead bodies. The dog eating the bodies prevents the souls of the dead from moving on, so Hercules and Iolaus have to stop the war and Ares to save lives and let the dead rest. We got to see Hercules kind of fight Ares (who was disguised as a dead friend of hercules), and that was interesting but ending how I thought it would. The dog was hilariously bad CG, but it didn't ruin its scenes, it waskind of entertainingly bad.

The Gauntlet made up for The Warrior Princess being disappointing. We get to see Xena be bad ass, and we get to see her start turning over a new leaf. She has some cool fight scenes, and the episode definitely makes you want to see her get the best of Darphus. Salmoneus is back, and I like how he interacts with hercules and Xena.

Unchained Heart is the last episode of the first season, and the continuation of the story from the last episode. After Xena killed darphus, Ares brought him back and now he's trying to get revenge. Iolaus shows up and is (understandably) angry that Hercules has teamed up with Xena. Salmoneus is entertaining again, interacting with all three of the others in a very entertaining way. We get Ares' dog again, and its still bad, but it didn't effect my enjoyment of the episode. There was a good ending, and everyone is off to more adventures.

OVerall, I enjoyed Season 1 of Hercules. The TV movies were hit or miss, but overall its been a fun experience with some entertaining adventures and good characters. I have the second season of hercules and the 1st and 2nd seasons of Xena to watch now. I'm not quite sure how I'll go about it, since I'm eager to get to Xena. I'll probably mix it up and watch a few episodes of Hercules and then a few episodes of Xena. I'm excited for both of them. Xena was pretty interesting, especially in the last two episodes, and I'm sure I'll enjoy her show a lot. I'm hoping Hercules and Iolaus get to adventure a bit more in Season 2. They teamed up a good deal in Season 1, but I think Iolaus would work well as a consistent sidekick. Its not like he has reasons to not travel around with Hercules, since I've come to terms with the fact that they are just ignoring his marriage from the first TV movie. I'm also hopiung we get some Zeus/Hercules interaction. I know the TV Movie version of Zeus doesn't return, but I'd like to see Hercules confront Zeus eventually.

Watched the first episode of the second season of Hercules, and the first episode of Xena.

King of Thieves was very good. I was a bit iffy about the whole "innocent person gets blamed for crime thing", but it was saved by not taking itself too seriously. Bruce Campbell was amazing as Autolycus, which was to be expected. He was just entertaining the whole time, and having him yodeling while swinging away was great. Iolaus's parts were also good, since the kind of standard story was made a lot better with humor. His three tests were great, as were his explanations as to how he beat each one of them. Hercules's interactions with Autolycus were just great. While the episode ended about how I expected it to, it was still great. I like the character of Autolycus, and I hope we see more of him in the future.

Sins of the Past (Xena) was a pretty good episode. It was interesting to see Xena's home village, and the fight at the end between Xena and the warlord was fun. Seeing them step on peoples heads as the fought was great. Gabrielle was somewhat annoying, but I'm not going to hold it against her, its only the first episode (and she wasn't that bad). Overall I liked this episode, even if Gabrielle didn't make a great first impression.

When they actually let Xena be a warrior (maybe 2 scenes total, for about five minutes all together) she had some exciting fight scenes, so she can definitely handle some fighting. It was really bizarre because I never imagined Xena, Warrior Princess, to solve her situations by batting her eyes, even when she was evil. I was expecting more butt kicking, and this episode seemed to hate giving any time for her to do that. I didn't really expect her and Hercules to go at it, but she really didn't do much to justify being called a Warrior princess this episode. I'm sure that will change, but while I liked her debut, it was kind of disappointing. Hopefully she'll get more character scenes (and more fighting scenes) when she shows up later for the last two episodes of the season.

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In her own series she gets more character development than ya can handle!

Gabrielle was somewhat annoying, but I'm not going to hold it against her, its only the first episode (and she wasn't that bad). Overall I liked this episode, even if Gabrielle didn't make a great first impression.

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Gabby starts out as the annoying sidekick, but very quickly becomes a full partner and a character as deep and interesting as Xena herself.

Chariots of War (Xena) had a good chariot/horse chase at the end, but that's about it. Besides that, it was just kind of bland, and the child actors were kind of annoying. The guy taking an arrow out of Xena was a decent scene too, I guess. Overall, it just wasn't a very impressive episode.

Chariots of War (Xena) had a good chariot/horse chase at the end, but that's about it. Besides that, it was just kind of bland, and the child actors were kind of annoying. The guy taking an arrow out of Xena was a decent scene too, I guess. Overall, it just wasn't a very impressive episode.

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I loved it for the start of the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid dynamic of this series.

Gabrielle:(Riding a galloping horse) Xena, this way! Never mind-- this way! Xena:(Driving a chariot) Hold on, Gabrielle! Gabrielle: Xena, I’m gonna fall! Hurry! Xena: Hold on! I’m coming! Jump! Gabrielle: Are you crazy?!Xena: Jump!Gabrielle:If I die, I’ll never talk to you again! Xena: Jump, Gabrielle-- come on! Jump! (Gabrielle jumps from the horse to the chariot) You call that a jump?!Gabrielle:No, it was a frantic leap! Best I could do!